


A Sickbed Visit

by tisfan



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sick Character, Sick Tony Stark, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-04 23:06:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17313581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tisfan/pseuds/tisfan
Summary: Tony doesn't know how to deal with being coddled...





	A Sickbed Visit

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sadieb798](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sadieb798/gifts).



> sadieb798 asked: Tis can I pretty please have Thor taking care of sick Tony thank

Tony didn’t quite know what to do with being coddled.

No one had ever made a fuss about his illnesses before, not even when he got chickenpox and was in bed for most of a week. Ana Jarvis would bring a tray in to his bedroom a few times a day, and he would eat, or not, as he had strength to do so, but Ana had other duties aside from sitting at his bedside, and Tony was left alone to burn with fever and to try to resist scratching at the scabs as they formed.

He’d almost died from pneumonia once when he was fourteen, but even then, his mother had someone else take him to the hospital. As he recalled, she visited once, mostly to speak with the doctor. Jarvis had brought Tony his homework from school.

Howard hadn’t even noticed that Tony had been out of the house.

Which meant when he started running a fever bad enough that it made him dizzy and everything he ate sat uneasily on his stomach, Tony didn’t even bother to tell anyone. He just went to bed and waited for it to be over.

So when Thor unlatched Tony’s bedroom door and strolled in with a soothing greeting of “How are you feeling, beloved?” Tony wasn’t quite sure what to say. In his experience, people stayed away from sick people.

“I feel terrible,” he admitted with a croak. He’d thrown up, clinging to the toilet desperately, and then resting his cheek against the cool floor, and his throat hurt like hell.

“So I am given to understand,” Thor said. He stared around at Tony’s bedroom like he’d never seen it before. Which was untrue, they’d spent several very rambunctious nights there. Tony really hoped Thor wasn’t looking for a repeat of any of those nights right now. Much as he adored bedplay with his god-like boyfriend, Tony _really_ wasn’t up to it. “It is too dark in here.”

“What?” Tony barely managed to say before Thor was opening the curtains and changing the polarization of the windows until Tony’s bedroom was flooded with sunlight. He considered hissing at the way the light bothered his eyes, but hissing was too much effort, and after a few moments of fidgeting with the settings, Thor had gotten the levels down to not-eye searing and somewhat comforting, really. The sunlight was _warm_ , and Tony had been quite cold for most of the previous evening.

Except when he was too hot.

“To recover, Midguardians need light, fresh air, and care,” Thor announced.

“I have a PECO air filtration system,” Tony protested. “The air outside is not possibly any--” he interrupted himself to cough, chest aching, the air burning in his lungs. Coughed until his head pounded and he was dizzy. He rumbled, deep in his chest, and actually hacked something up.

Thor handed him a tissue.

When had the man even moved that close, much less found a tissue? Tony didn’t keep tissues on his bedside table like some plebeian… whatever. He was too exhausted to mentally keep listing what he was, or wasn’t.  

He spit into the tissue and Thor held up the trashcan for Tony to throw it away.

“Better out than in, right?” Tony joked weakly. “What are you doing here?”

“Taking care of you,” Thor said, as if this was obvious. “I have brought some lemon and honey tea, if you would care for it, and some mild soup, that you may stay nourished. Are you hungry now?”

Tony considered that, and his rebelling stomach. “No, no, thanks, I’m… I’m fine.”

“You are certainly not,” Thor told him. “If you are not hungry, then I will help you with a sponge bath, change your bedsheets, and perhaps we can watch some television for a while.”

Tony blinked at him.

“Cleanliness will help you feel better, and will keep you from breathing in all the little organisms that are making you sick in the first place,” Thor said. “Did we not teach this once to your nordic peoples? I understand they took hygiene very seriously.”

Tony just shrugged. He was exhausted. Too exhausted to protest, which Thor took as permission.

Tony didn’t even know where he got all the stuff he had with him. A basin, which he filled with warm water, and he helped Tony off with his tee, gently sponging off his skin. Tony had never had a sponge bath before. When he was sick before, he just laid in bed until he felt better, and sometimes he’d manage to crawl to the shower once.

While the water dried on his skin gave him the shivers, Thor was quick and efficient about it, tucking Tony back under the blankets before the shudders got unbearable.

“Why--” he grumbled as Thor propped him up and then proceeded to change the bed around him with almost professional ease. “Why are you doing this?”

“Do you not wish me to attend you during your illness?” Thor asked, face confused, almost _hurt_.

“Well, just, you know, no one--” Tony waved his hand around trying to find the words for no one really cares, honestly. “I thought sickbed visits were only when people were dying.”

“Sickbed visits are, in part, to ensure that the ill person does not die, in fact,” Thor pontificated. “And also, because you are my beloved, and I wish for you to feel better. If my presence gives you some comfort, I am here for you. And if not, I will make sure you have whatever tonics and poultices you require, and I shall leave you alone to rest.”

Tony swallowed hard, and it wasn’t just because his throat hurt. “No one ever--”

“You have been poorly cared for in the past,” Thor said, very gently. He sat on the edge of Tony’s bed and took his hand, pressing his lips briefly to Tony’s fingers. “But that is not what I am going to do.”


End file.
